By 2020 Local government could possibly be implemented in New Providence. According to Minister of Local Government Frankie Campbell, this is dependent on what a committee comes up with once they complete their scrutiny of local government throughout the Family Islands.
Speaking with media before heading into Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Mr. Campbell said, “some time ago, the Cabinet of The Bahamas approved the formation of a committee that will look into matters related to the implementation of local government in New Providence.
“On Wednesday past I had the privilege to meet with that committee. The committee is chaired by Senator Renard Henfield.
“The committee is made up of a cross section of individuals from varying backgrounds. They were given the mandate to consider the legislation that exists to consider the practices that are going on in the Family Islands now and to see how effective and efficient they are before we move into considering local government in New Providence,” Mr. Campbell said.
The Minister added that besides the committee’s excitement to work on this project, he is satisfied that the committee has already began work in this process.
“We will get a timely report from the committee; as a matter of fact they have committed to give a progress report by the end of August.
“And so, I want the Bahamian people to know that we are committed to keeping that promise and we are assuring that we are very much ahead of time, because the next local government election is scheduled for 2020 and we are working to be ahead of time to make sure that we can deliver on that,” Mr. Campbell said,
“The committee is a non-partisan committee thus Mr. Henfield heading the committee. The opposition was invited to add a member to the committee and I think the opposition nominated former Member of Parliament Philip Smith,” Mr. Campbell said.
The committee is comprised of individuals such as Cephas Cooper, Vice Chairman, Dr. Nicola Virgil Rolle, Dr. Nicolette Bethel, Ed Fields, Brett Lashley, Dianne Holowesko Dunkley, Valentino Brown and Roderick Pinder.